Rule 82.05.Restrictions on Legal Personnel After Employment by a Court.

Rule 82.05 governs what a person who has worked as a lawyer, law clerk, research attorney, or legal assistant for the Supreme Court or a district of the court of appeals can do once that job ends. Through the end of 2024, the rule imposes a flat cooling-off period: on top of any restriction Rule 4 already places on the person's practice, that former employee cannot appear at counsel table or sign any filing in any case before the same court — the Supreme Court, or the specific court of appeals district — for six months after leaving.

Starting January 1, 2025, the rule changes shape. Instead of a blanket six-month timer that clears after half a year regardless of the case, the new version imposes a case-specific bar with no expiration date: a former lawyer, law clerk, research attorney, or legal assistant can never do legal work on a case that was pending before the court during their tenure there. If that person later joins or becomes associated with a law firm representing a party in such a case, the firm and the former employee have to comply with Rule 4-1.11(a), the professional-conduct rule governing successive government and judicial employment.

The practical effect cuts in both directions. The new version lifts the old six-month exile from all new matters at the court — a former clerk can take on a brand-new case there the day after leaving. But for any case that crossed their desk while they worked there, the restriction is no longer temporary. It lasts for as long as that case remains pending.